Home Ministry rejects DoT plans to track maoists through satellite

Home ministry has dismissed a telecom department proposal to provide satellite-based communications to beef up surveillance in India’s Maoist hotbeds.

KOLKATA: The home ministry has dismissed a telecom department (DoT) proposal to provide satellite-based communications to beef up surveillance in India's Maoist hotbeds, calling it an unviable "high-cost option" .

Instead, it has asked the USOF administrator to expeditiously modify the Indian Telegraph Act (Amendment Rules) to award the contract to BSNL on a"nomination basis" to roll out GSM networks in these troubled regions, waiving the requirement of an open bidding process" . The USOF, which subsidises telecom infrastructure in rural India and also supports the development of new products and services to improve broadband connectivity, is made up of funds from all telecom operators .

"The home ministry is averse to deploying satellite communications technology in regions identified as Maoist hotbeds as it sees it as a short-term , expensive solution. It has advised the USOF to take the necessary legal steps to amend the Indian Telegraph Act to mandate BSNL to roll out GSM networks in these regions, bypassing the open bidding process," said a senior DoT official.

Post-amendment of the Indian Telegraph Act, BSNL will be eligible to receive USOF subsidy "on an actual basis for opex and capex costs incurred" since the project involves providing mobile connectivity in regions facing security challenges and low revenues. Since the Union Cabinet has approved the mobile rollout in these maoist pockets, the USOF will shortly approach the law ministry to amend the Act.

The amendment is needed since under current the rules any contract for a USOF-subsidised telecom venture can be only awarded to telcos that participate in a bidding process since all mobile phone companies contribute 5% of their annual revenue to the USOF corpus. But the home ministry is averse to involving private telecom operators in this high-security mobile venture. In fact, it has rejected a recent Planning Commission proposal of initially inviting bids from private mobile phone companies, stressing that "this project must be awarded to a state-run telco on national security grounds" .

The ministry wants BSNL to extend mobile coverage in 2,199 locations across Andhra Pradesh , Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand , Orissa, Bihar, Maharashtra , MP, West Bengal, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh that have been identified "as prone to left wing extremism" . According to a detailed feasibility report submitted by BSNL to DoT, the project cost is estimated at Rs 5,806.7 crore.